Defenceman Keith Ballard gives Kevin Bieksa a hug during Vancouver Canucks practice at UBC. Bieksa, at 32, is the elder statesman of a defensive corps that is in its prime and can contribute at both ends of the ice.Arlen Redekop
/ PNG files

Vancouver Canuck Keith Ballard has his skate checked by equipment trainer Jamie Hendricks . After hip surgery and a concussion, people wondered if Ballard would recover, but he has proven himself and lately is playing his best hockey as a Canuck.Jeff Vinnick, Nhli Via Getty Images
/ Vancouver Sun

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ST. PAUL, Minn. - It’s not hard to cheer for Keith Ballard, whose humility and sense of humour carried him after his game left.

The 30-year-old defenceman is never going to be the guy the Vancouver Canucks promised when general manager Mike Gillis sacrificed offensive prospect Michael Grabner and a first-round draft pick to acquire Ballard from the Florida Panthers in 2010.

On a good team, he is not a top-four blue-liner who will play 22-24 minutes a night. His strong skating cannot drive the attack and his competitiveness doesn’t change anyone’s game plan. What Keith Ballard turned out to be, besides a great teammate, is a steady National Hockey League defenceman.

His greatest fault is that the Panthers overpaid when they signed him to a six-year, $25.2-million US contract in 2009, and Gillis overpaid to get him a year later. And those two transactions created an expectation that was impossible for Ballard to fulfil.

After trying to be a player he is not, he is finally the player he needs to be for the Canucks.

“Part of the problem is I just was never really sure what I was supposed to do,” Ballard said Wednesday.

“I spent so much time last year on the mental side of things, working with a sports psychologist, because until I came here I never had any adversity in hockey. Going back to five years old, I just went out and played and didn’t worry about anything.

“I’ve put in so much work on the mental aspect of it that I feel like such a different person, on and off the ice. Coming into this year, I just felt like myself again.”

Ballard, who is from Baudette, Minn., should feel at home Thursday night. He’ll be playing against the Minnesota Wild in front of family and friends, albeit with a heart aching at the loss this week of his grandfather.

Ballard is one of the most “human” players on the Canucks.

He arrived from Florida still recovering from hip surgery and soon played himself out of coach Alain Vigneault’s lineup.

Last season, after regaining some confidence and reliability, Ballard suffered a concussion in February and missed the final 29 games of the regular season.

Since his trade, people have wondered how the team might get rid of him and his contract. But Ballard is still here and not only playing, but playing his best hockey as a Canuck.

He and third-year pro Chris Tanev have become so dependable as a third pairing, Vigneault no longer worries about his defence matchups. It wasn’t by accident Ballard and Tanev were on the ice in the final minute of overtime on Tuesday, when Tanev’s first NHL goal beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2.

Ballard hasn’t registered a point in nine games – his keep-in helped set up Tanev’s winner – but he co-leads the Canucks at plus-four. And his average ice time of 17:10 is more than Ballard logged in all but a handful of the 47 games he played last season.

“What he has stopped doing is chasing the game all over the ice,” Canuck associate coach Rick Bowness said. “So now the game comes to him and he’s in control.”

Bowness, an assistant coach in Phoenix when Ballard began his NHL career with the Coyotes, remembers the defenceman when he was a minor-league prospect during the 2004-05 lockout.

“I’ve known Keith a long time,” Bowness said. “What I remember from Keith ... we saw an earnest kid who wanted to learn and wanted to work and wanted to do well. You never forget those guys. You know deep in their heart, they really want to do well. And you want to see them do well. I’ve got a lot of time for people like that.”

Bowness said Ballard, an 11th-overall draft pick in 2002 who was traded twice before playing in the NHL, also tried to do too much in Phoenix before learning to play within himself. The same thing has happened with the Canucks, he said.

Tanev and Ballard are an interesting pair. Tanev, who was never drafted, hardly says a word and his game is equally understated.

Ballard is one of the most talkative guys on the team and is known on the ice, as much as anything, for periodically catapulting opposing wingers with his hip check.

Their partnership is unchanged since the start of the season, and Tanev and Ballard have been the Canucks’ most consistent defensive pairing. Tanev also is plus-four.

“He’s calm and patient and I’m a bit more abrasive, so there are some complimentary strengths there,” Ballard said. “But we communicate so well, on the ice and off the ice. Every morning after a game we’ll sit down at a computer and watch our shifts together and talk about little plays.”

That’s what Ballard is: a little-play defenceman. There’s nothing wrong with that. Thirty little plays a game will keep him in the NHL another eight years.

“My game fell apart for a year and it was a battle to get all that back,” Ballard said. “Last year, I focused on building my foundation back — being reliable and consistent and using my strengths. But I was very conservative last year. I wasn’t playing to just not make mistakes, but I wasn’t playing to make things happen. This year, we talked about taking that next step.”

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